J.K. Rowling

LONDON (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling's first foray into adult fiction was bound to be compared to her wildly successful Harry Potter series, and, while "The Casual Vacancy" has earned mixed reviews, for some critics the magic has worn off. The Casual Vacancy, which hits the shelves on Thursday, looks destined for the top of the best-seller lists whatever the reaction, with Rowling's celebrity status guaranteeing public anticipation and media attention in equal measure. In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani likened some of Rowling's small-minded, snobby characters to the odious Dursley family from the Harry Potter tales. "One can only admire her gumption in...

Related "J.K. Rowling" Articles

LONDON (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling's first foray into adult fiction was bound to be compared to her wildly successful Harry Potter series, and, while "The Casual Vacancy" has earned mixed reviews, for some critics the magic has worn off. The...

It's hardly shocking that the most fully realized characters in "The Casual Vacancy," J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults, are the youngest.Fats Wall, Krystal Weedon, Gaia Bawden, Andrew Price, Sukhvinder Jawanda: Even the names are vaguely...

As Lucy Kobbs turned the final page of the seventh and last book in the "Harry Potter" series, she took a pencil to the wall beside her bed and memorialized the end of an era: 7/22/07, 3:20 a.m."It's one of those books that will stick...

The hypocrisy at the heart of "The Hunger Games" is irresistible. Novelist Suzanne Collins, whose trilogy has been decreed "awesome" by, among others, my 5th grade son, indicts violence and organized brutality as tools of mass-audience...

Can you imagine the second half of the "Harry Potter" saga without Ron Weasley? J.K. Rowling apparently did, at least briefly.
The author says that midway through the phenomenally successful series of novels, when she "wasn't in a very...

LONDON (Reuters) - Bloomsbury Publishing, home to the Harry Potter books in Britain, launched its first purely digital imprint on Wednesday which it said would bring out-of-print titles "back from the dead."
Bloomsbury Reader has signed up a...

The Walt Disney Co. will build a theme-park “land” based on the movie “Avatar” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom as the first step in a broader licensing deal that will lead to similar attractions in Disney parks...

For many teenagers and young adults Friday's release of the final Harry Potter movie marked the end of a defining character for their generation.
"It's saying goodbye to something we've known for so long," said Sam Martin, 21, of Mansfield....

After seven previous films over a 10-year span, $2 billion in domestic box office and still more treasure overseas, Warner Bros. has unwrapped the Harry Potter advertising line it hoped it would never have to use: "It all ends."
In a classic...

In 1999, Helena Morris was an articulate 9-year-old from Simsbury with firm opinions. In an interview with The Courant that year, she described "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first in the J.K. Rowling series, as "the best book...

A 10-year-old tradition will soon come to an end: The last "Harry Potter" movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2," will open next Thursday night, just after midnight.
Night-owl screenings are scheduled at theaters...

Debora Bell would be glad "if 3-D went away."
The Rockville printer is just the kind of filmgoer Hollywood wants to keep happy. Her family goes to movies every week. They get to the first screenings they can, usually at the 3-D-equipped AMC...

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which marks its first birthday today, has established an enthusiastic theme park following, the kind seen for the books and films featuring a boy wizard created by author J.K. Rowling.
Visitors to Universal's Islands...

Oh, that J.K. Rowling—what a tease! This week the "Harry Potter" author revealed pottermore.com, a mysterious new website that has further confused her fans already emotional over the fact that they're less than one month away from the last...

Chicago has no shortage of household-name suburbs.
Oak Park, Berwyn, Schaumburg, Evanston -- those are all fine and good. But for whatever reason, mention Naperville, even in passing, and you're going to get a reaction. Depending on who's in on the...